Post Game Analysis against Cats / reality check

[undy]

Does anyone else think that we are on the edge of playing too many small players? As good and as vital as they are (the ones we have) is our team at a disadvantage size wise - Jack, McGlynn, Moore, Bird as well as several others who are under 182cm?

Yep - bring back Pykey.

I thought that when it was really, really wet, the Cats adapted much quicker than we did - keeping the ball moving forwards via punching, soccering it etc etc. It felt as though we took a while to adopt the same tactics, although it wasn't costing us on the scoreboard.

In the last quarter it was as though the Cats were playing dry weather footy and we hadn't switched back - it HAD stopped raining, and we were still trying to play the soggy style and didn't adapt... it could just be that soaked, but not actually being lashed by rain is much more familiar to them than to us.

[Ratna]

To lose to the cats the way we did was a little disappointing but I think the effort over the first 4 games has been generally good.

Skills have been a problem this year, but in the conditions and with the opposition (I believe Geelong are still a very good team) last night you can't afford to have multiple unmarked defenders in front of the contest as a quick kick may be the only option. In the wet you don't want to kick backward and have a skill error so we needed men forward of the ball. IMO our tactics were ordinary and played right into Geelongs hands. It is easy to pick on the players making the mistakes and there were some shockers but there were also many from lack of structure.

Many talked about the reluctance to play youth last year, this year we have plenty of youth and different problems. If they are going to give young players a go I think they need to give them at least 3 games, I was disappointed with Sumner not getting a few games once they had given him one.

LRT, Moore and Tiger will add a lot to this team in terms of stability, structure and confidence and I agree with a lot of those above calling for Myke.

Jesse and Jetts will disappoint plenty still before they are the players we want them to be now and I have to agree with some of the criticism but I think they have shown enough this year to keep persevering. That is not to say that a week in the magoos here and there or to be used as the sub (especially Jetta) wouldn't hurt them

Lots of doom and gloom in this thread (in the short term I agree with some of it) but I think we have plenty to look forward too.

[Xie Shan]

Came home last night very disappointed. But in the cold light of day and the odd glimmer of sunshine I'm now feeling pretty comfortable with where we are at. The Cats may not be as good as they were but they are still a very good team and have a lot of experienced hard bodies in there - and it showed. But we matched it with them until we gave up just before the end. And that was despite a lot of poor kicking (again) and a lot of players sticking to a dry weather game plan. It will certainly stop the team from getting ahead of themselves. One loss after four rounds is better than we had a right to expect at the start of the year. And that to the Cats. I agree that we need to bring in some from the ressies - Pyke deserves to come in and Mummy needs some support, Tadhg will fix the run out of defence - a problem tonight and Moore will marshall our misfunctioning forward line.

What we need now is a convincing win. Hopefully that will be against the Blues. After some very hard games, played hard, I think the bye has come at the right time for us.

GS, that's about the same as what I got from last night's game. We fell away at the end which was disappointing but up until that point we'd had more possessions and won more contested ball (as noted by 2MMM commentary team) than the Cats which seems to indicate that we're at least closing the gap. Doesn't excuse the dumb footy and apparent unwillingness to change to a wet weather game plan -- Rhyce Shaw, who otherwise had a great game, must have thought he was still playing under Malthouse the number of times he went wide to the boundary line!

Skills and decision making are fixable, but the effort was certainly there, despite the Geelong players having more experienced hard bodies the Swans players certainly let them know that they were being tackled early in the game (though the pressure dropped off in the second half).

Not a bad time to have a bye, though we are traditionally slow starters coming off a week's rest (see games against Collingwood after the split round). Carlton will be tough as they are playing some pretty good footy. They pushed the Pies pretty hard last week. (Okay, that is far too many mentions of Collingwood in this post!!)

[Xie Shan]

BTW I am also in the Bring Back Pyke camp... unless they are trying to establish a new nickname for Mummy, 'Supermum'? As terrific as he was against Ottens last night he can't do it all on his own!!

[Auntie.Gerald]

I saw nothing in the game that I hadn't seen in the last three. We have had players with awful disposal skills (Reid, Johnson, Jetta), horrible decision-making (Bevan, Mattner, McGlynn) and players who just go completely missing (White). We just came up against a better side.

To be fair Donners it is fair to say that Jimmy B and Selwood also didnt have much impact on the game so Birdy, Hannes, Kennedy, Macca etc did a very good job in nullifying two of the best midfielders in the comp and Steve J didnt have much affect either

The killer with Geelong is that you glue down 5 or 6 players and then players like Chapman end up on the ball and have a massive role in the win !

We had our chances and if we had a couple more players that would have caused Champan etc to suddenly play more defensive we may have come away with a win..........or a draw

That is probably it in a nutshell for me.....................they have more players we need to shut down.............we dont have enough that they need to focus on. The difference between champions and a team on the rise !

[Auntie.Gerald]

Ottens played as many minutes as Mummy and the guy is 52 years of age !!!

Mummy is fine and on a fast track we would have had Goodes as a target and opened the game up...........it would have killed us to have Pykey out there as well last night I reckon even though it is 50/50 argument.......Jetta hurt us as he couldnt slide in for the ball and backed out of alot of 50/50 possessions and even when he was first there...........those little 1% happenings do add up..............but in saying that I saw enough last week of Jetts to keep him on the dry track and keep him rolling as there is more upside then putting on Meredith or Moore at this stage etc

[swansrule100]

BTW I am also in the Bring Back Pyke camp... unless they are trying to establish a new nickname for Mummy, 'Supermum'? As terrific as he was against Ottens last night he can't do it all on his own!!

put goodes back in the ruck

[liz]

put goodes back in the ruck

Why would you want to do that? He's our best forward and probably still one of our best three midfielders. Why would you waste him in the ruck when we have Mumford, Pyke and Seaby all perfectly capable of doing that job?

[dimelb]

put goodes back in the ruck

Yes, occasionally. Big Mike needs to be there, especially when there are two ruckmen opposing (last week) or conditions are sapping (last night). He can go forward and kick goals, and may contribute to the structure we didn't have last night.

[swansrule100]

Why would you want to do that? He's our best forward and probably still one of our best three midfielders. Why would you waste him in the ruck when we have Mumford, Pyke and Seaby all perfectly capable of doing that job?

i meant its a possibility without changing the team too much. Why couldnt he play in the middle as a pinch hitter in the ruck, would probably draw a slower opponent. I just dont see the point in Pyke playing for a 5 minute ruck chop out and adding nothing anywhere else, yes he improved last year, yes he kicked goals in the reserves, but generally he is lost at AFL level.

[swansrule100]

Yes, occasionally. Big Mike needs to be there, especially when there are two ruckmen opposing (last week) or conditions are sapping (last night). He can go forward and kick goals, and may contribute to the structure we didn't have last night.

id love to be wrong and if pyke plays i hope he goes great. But what do you think he would of done last night a few hit outs perhaps and bugger all, hes not going to take big forward grabs against seasoned afl backman. People inflate pykes ability big time IMHO.
As i said i hope im wrong and eating humble pie if he plays. IF we do need a second ruck i think Seaby is the better option. I think the ruck is not a weakness at the moment, we have bigger problems

[dimelb]

id love to be wrong and if pyke plays i hope he goes great. But what do you think he would of done last night a few hit outs perhaps and bugger all, he's not going to take big forward grabs against seasoned afl backman. People inflate pykes ability big time IMHO.
As i said i hope im wrong and eating humble pie if he plays. IF we do need a second ruck i think Seaby is the better option. I think the ruck is not a weakness at the moment, we have bigger problems

I think you're underestimating the rate of Pyke's improvement. He has a great pair of hands for a grab, and he is big enough, fast enough and agile enough, and increasingly has the positional sense to be a handful for any backman. I'd love to see him in a contest with Fletcher, it'd be worth watching.

[satchmopugdog]

I have been beside myself with despair after last night's game but all the people I text (and of course they barrack for other teams as I fly the flag practically by myself here) say that we didn't do that badly. Maybe they are being kind to me or we are being tooooo critical and pessimistic?

I love Teddy and Kennedy...(well there you go Teddy Kennedy!!!!!) and would like Mcglynn except for his roast to Reid. Sure he made a mistake but McGlynn misses targets too. Smith is great. Craig Bolton looked handsome in the stands......The Cats are still a good side

Very disappointed with Jimmy Bartel....rainy night and he didn't wear the long sleeves and his new haircut just didn't do it for me!!!

[Nico]

Haven't had time to read all the posts, but Am I the only one to think that Mumms was monstered at least 5 times?

He was on the receiving end of being buried in the mud at least 5 times by 3 plus cats with head high contact. Why! How did they get away with it? Poor umping I would say but I didn't think the cats were dirty players, but I was wrong.

We had 4 kids who were born in 1991 on the ground. Experience is the issue. It will get better. No flag this year, but I can see good cohesiveness as a group (I am not counting the 4th). Its there, we need Bulldog back to steer the ship (yep, I do believe in his ability to read play way ahead of the action) and Pyke to work with Mumms; they are both capable of playing up forward very well indeed, it could be a major tag team if the PTB are game enough to try.

I reckon he got a few frees for those indiscretions.

[Triple B]

....and would like Mcglynn except for his roast to Reid. Sure he made a mistake but McGlynn misses targets too.

That deserved a roast. It wasn't a case of missing a target, all he had to do was move it forward, anywhere, just don't kick it out of bounds. McGlynn was in the goalsquare with barely a Geelong player inside 50.